All language subtitles for Noam Chomsky on if Iran is a threat to Israel

Before we get to the video

of Noam Chomsky addressing
if Iran is a threat to Israel.

Here are some other key points
Chomsky has made.

Chomsky argues
that the Iranian threat is often inflated

and used as justification
for increased tensions.

Chomsky emphasizes the role of
the United States in the conflict.

He believes U.S.

foreign policy, particularly its support
for Israel and opposition

to the Iran nuclear
deal, contributes to regional instability.

Now, after this wonderful video of Noam
Chomsky.

Hi. first, thank you so much for coming.

I've learned a lot listening to
what you shared with us.

My question is specifically about,
Iran and the nuclear weapons

and the discussion

that you were having with regard to Iran
and the international community.

I definitely understand
the idea of a country

obtaining a nuclear weapon
or developing one themselves

out of a form of protection,
or to be on the same,

I guess, international status
as other countries who are considered

superpowers are on the same level
as a superpower

because they themselves
have nuclear weapons.

But what do you do
when a country is openly trying to develop

one or obtain one, and also open it open
and openly threatening

to wipe out a country and claiming
that a country shouldn't exist?

I mean, those are two really big issues
that we're dealing with.

And I didn't really think you addressed
that. And I was curious. That's true.

Say, well, what do you do about countries
that already develop nuclear weapons

outside the framework of the
Nonproliferation Treaty and our daily

violating resolutions
of the Security Council

and the International
Atomic Energy Agency?

that's the much more serious problem.

But that's a different situation,
because that

those countries aren't openly threatening
to wipe out another country.

Nor is Iran.

Just take a look at the statements.

The statements are that
they don't think they said in.

They actually goes back to Khomeini.

At the time of the U.S.

Iranian alliance, the Israeli Iran
alliance, and Israel didn't care about it.

Then I keep seeing repeated
the statement is that,

you know, in the course of time,
Israel should no longer exist.

Well, actually,
I happen to agree with that, too.

In fact, so do a lot of people in Israel,
the ones who think there should be

a single democratic state
that's not calling for wiping anyone out.

In fact, Iran has supported the

international consensus on the two state
settlement.

actually, there is
there are two countries

that are not only calling for some nation

not to exist,
but are destroying it, namely the U.S.

and Israel.

That's their position
with regard to the Palestinians.

And they're not just saying.

I stress they're not just saying it.

They're doing it day by day.

That's the meaning of the policies
that are going on right

before our eyes in Gaza and the West Bank,

which we are supporting and paying for.

So, sure,
you shouldn't call for the destruction of

another nation,
and you shouldn't implement that.

Actually, the official position of Israel,

backed by the United States,
slightly modified it.

But back about 20 years ago,
their official position,

the coalition government, labor Likud,

was that there cannot be, I'm quoting it,

an additional Palestinian state

between Jordan and Israel.

In other words,
they declared, and the US supported

that there already is a Palestinian state,
namely Jordan and the Palestinians.

Object.

You know, they say, oh, wait a minute,
that's not our state,

but who cares about them?

We say, that's your state
and there can't be an additional one.

Well, that goes well beyond calling
for the destruction of another country.

I mean, it's it's
analogous to saying that,

if somebody came along, suppose
Ahmadinejad said

Jews don't need Israel
because they already have New York.

Okay.

I mean, you know,
we'd call that a revival of Nazism,

but that's the official
you has been the official U.S.

Israeli position.

So there's a lot to be, incidentally,
about Iran.

nobody in their right mind wants Iran
to have nuclear weapons or anyone else.

But it is. Well,
and it's a horrible regime.

Undoubtedly, though, there are worse
ones in the region which are our allies.

but, every everyone.

And I'm not referring to Israel. I'm
referring to the other Arab states.

I mean, comparison with Saudi Arabia.

Iran looks like a civil rights Paradise.

But, the,
but it's awful, you know, no doubt.

and, and there's a way to deal with it,

like, for example, moving towards
a nuclear weapons free zone.

But among strategic analysts,
including Israeli ones, there is no real,

there's no real question

about
why Iran is moving to nuclear weapons

capability, which is not the same
as having nuclear weapons.

It's just being at a point
where you could have them like,

most of the advanced industrial world
is in that position,

you know, Japan, Italy,
all sorts of countries.

the reason is very simple, actually.

It was described by,
one of Israel's leading,

military analysts,
very hawkish, Martin von Crayford.

A couple of years ago,
after the invasion of Iraq,

he wrote an article in which he said

he doesn't know if Iran is developing
nuclear weapons, and he hopes not.

But he says if they're not developing
nuclear weapons, they are crazy.

That was his word.

They're not developing. They're crazy.

The United States has just announced,
we're going to attack anybody.

We feel like an invader.

If we can do it with impunity.

So you better have a deterrent.

Well,

maybe they're developing a deterrent.

no. Serious analysts thinks that
they could use nuclear weapons.

Mean if Iran had

nuclear weapons and missiles,
which nobody saying wants them to have.

I mean, if they went
as far as even loading a missile,

the country would be vaporized,

you know, instantly,
even if there was any suspicion of it.

Well, you know,
the clerics may be hideous people,

but they've shown
no particular inclination for suicide

and destruction of everything
that they own and everything they value.

same is true
about leaking nuclear weapons to others.

If there was any suspicion
that they were doing that,

you can say goodbye to Iran.

So chances are
they're using it or, you know, probably

at the level of an asteroid
hitting the Earth or something like that.

but, it's a serious problem.

In fact,
if you look at the Israeli literature,

they're pretty straight about it.

They say that the, the real threat
of an Iranian nuclear

weapon is not against Israel,
but it's against Zionism.

That is what they're afraid of

is that if the region becomes

too dangerous,
people in Israel are just going to leave,

you know, people who have the capacity
to more educated, wealthier and so on

because they won't want to live
in a region with that threat.

And in fact,
immigration is a pretty serious crime.

Emigration of the educated and the,

you know, the trained, educated sectors.

So they don't want to face that threat.

But I don't think any serious
strategic analyst at.

I've never seen one who, thinks that

there's the threat
that Iran might use a nuclear weapon.

I mean, do total suicide.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Noam Chomsky advocates
for a nuclear weapons

free zone in the Middle East
as a solution,

which would require cooperation
from all parties, including Israel.

He also criticizes
Israel's possession of undeclared

nuclear weapons
while opposing Iran's nuclear program.

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